Quick News in details

**A former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has opened up on why she embarked on a solo march in Abuja during the week.

The former Minister said her solo protest in Abuja was “a demand on accountability and good governance.”

According to Dr. Ezekwesili, the present administration has failed to provide good governance to the people of the country.

Speaking on a live radio programme in Abuja yesterday, Ezekwesili decried the incessant killings across the country, adding that, “President Muhammadu Buhari’s government had proved it’s unable to resolve the problem.”

TRENDING

*. President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana has relieved Charlotte Osel, head of the country’s Electoral Commission, of her duties. Also sacked were Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwah, Osel’s deputies. The president took the action based on the recommendation of a panel which investigated allegations levelled against the trio. The panel was set up by the nation’s chief justice. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the country’s minister of information, said the president thanked them for their services.

*. Mojisola Dada, the judge handling the trial of Innoson Motors and its owner at the Special Offences Court in Lagos has withdrawn from the case. Her withdrawal followed complaints which lawyers to Innoson Chukwuma, CEO of Innoson Motors, filed against Ms Dada at the National Judicial Council, asking the body to compel her to withdraw from the case. Mr Chukwuma was due to be finally arraigned on June 21, but the proceeding stalled after Ms Dada failed to appear in court.

NEWS FLASH

1. FOREIGN SCENE:
At least five people were killed after several shots were fired at a newspaper in the United States. The incident occurred at the offices of Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, northeastern U.S. on Thursday afternoon (Thursday night in Nigeria) The police confirmed five killed and several injured while giving live updates to media outlets outside the newspaper offices shortly after the incident. Officials said the gunman was being identified, and all threats have been neutralised around the scene.

2. AFRICAN ISSUES:
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday said no one, including Muhoho Kenyatta, his brother, will be spared in the corruption crackdown by his government. Kenya’s president made the comments after Mwangi Kiunjuri, the country’s agriculture minister, on Monday gave a parliamentary committee a list of companies licensed to import sugar. Muhoho is a director in one of the firms listed. The firm, named as Protech Investment Limited, is not listed on Kenya’s companies register. “There is no going back in war against corruption,” Kenyatta said

3. EXCLUSIVE:
As investigators in Seychelles enquire about the multi-million dollar assets owned by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, through offshore shell companies in tax havens, his wife, Toyin, who is suspected to have acted as his front, tried to distance herself as a politically-exposed person (PEP) by submitting documents that suggested she was a British national and not a Nigerian.
Operatives of the Seychelles Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) are trying to uncover whether or not Mrs Saraki stood as a front for her husband in the ownership of some of the offshore holdings linked to the family.
4. PRESIDENCY:
President Buhari says ongoing killings should not be politicised, but the latest statement could further deepen partisan bickering.
In a statement Thursday afternoon, presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, said the PDP was playing politics when the major opposition party declared a week-long national mourning in memory of those killed last weekend in Plateau State.
Mr Adesina said the PDP’s mourning exercise would fail because “Nigerians are politically discerning, and cannot be hoodwinked by cheap antics.”

5. NATIONAL ASSEMBLY:
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Thursday advocated for the setting aside Ministers of State positions for youth.
Mr Dogara made the call while speaking at the Not-Too-Young-To-Run Conference to celebrate President Mohammadu Buhari’s assent to the bill. He said the history of democracy globally had been about constant struggle between the included and the excluded. “I don’t think we will be asking for too much after the 2019 elections if we insist on a situation where we can appoint youth as Ministers of State.

6. NATIONAL ASSEMBLY:
The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, granted an application by Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege seeking to serve contempt proceedings on the Senate and Senate President through newspaper publication. Omo-Agege approached the court through an ex parte motion seeking to effect service of form 48 which is notice of contempt and form 49, notice of committal to prison on the respondents for refusing to accept personal service. Omo-Agege’s counsel, Mr Alex Izinyon (SAN) told the court that since May when the court made an order nullifying his client’s suspension, the Senate had yet to pay him his outstanding salaries, and allowances.

7. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL:
International, says the failure of Nigerian government to hold murderers to account is encouraging them and fueling rising insecurity across the country. The group made the observation on Thursday through a statement signed by its media officer, Isa Sanusi. It said independently verified estimated figures showed at least 1813 people have been murdered in 17 states in the country this year, double the 894 people killed in 2017

8. RELIGION:
Pope Francis appointed 14 new cardinals in a ceremony at St Peter’s Square on Thursday, while warning the newly named dignitaries against internal wrangling within the church. “What does it profit us to gain the whole world if we are living in a stifling atmosphere of intrigues that dry up our hearts?’’ the pope said. “We might think of all those palace intrigues that take place, even in curial offices.’’ During his address, the pope also encouraged cardinals not to engage in a “quest of honours, jealousy, envy, intrigue, accommodation and compromise.’’

9. STATE GOVERNMENT:
Nine people have been confirmed dead after a tanker conveying petrol went up in flames on the Otedola Bridge, along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway on Thursday evening, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) has said. Adesina Tiamiyu, the agency’s general manager, said 54 vehicles were razed by the inferno. “On getting to the scene of the incident it was discovered that a Mack tanker truck loaded with 33,000 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) moving inward Berger at about 5:23 pm, fell and spilled its content on the road resulting into fire outbreak,”

10. #RUSSIA 2018:
Japan have made history by becoming the first ever nation to progress to the knockout stages of a World Cup on fair play rules. Japan went into their final Group H game against Poland top of the group, but fell to a 1-0 defeat. However, Colombia’s 1-0 win over Poland meant that La Tricolor topped the group, leaving Japan and Senegal level in terms of points, goal difference and goals scored. Japan’s fair play score for the group stage ended at -4 (four yellow cards) with Senegal’s at -6 (six yellow cards) meaning Senegal’s yellow cards sent them home.